Chapter VI: Internet Scams

A typical Internet scam
The most typical Internet scam is an auction-type; something is ordered from the web, it´s paid but not delivered. But maybe more common are the so called Nigerian Letters, which promise you lots of money if you just pay a liiiiittle payment.. Yeah, right.

There are also other kinds of letters, and more sophisticated (well, not always..). Most likely there is at least one in your email box right now. Or at least I seem to get one every day. What then? An email where you are either a "The Lucky Winner!!!" or are offered something, like "Loan offer to you!!!". With these emails the sender (using of course fake name and email) tries to get your private information (for example bank account information and codes) or get you to donate money.

About a year ago there was a big scam in Finland. Some direction sent emails in the name of Nordea bank. I got the email also, it was about some transaction and therefore my bank account codes were needed. Even though the email was quite inarticulate some fell for it. Afterward the Nordea bank clearly stated in media that it never ever asks for clients´ bank codes. Especially not via email. This scam went on also in other Northern countries as I know of.

Fighting the scammers
When reading the "whatsthebloodypoint.com" first thing I felt was why not. If there is a way to fight against the scammers then it should be used. Why not to fool them around and this way maybe save other peoples´money? And after all, this is quite nice way to fool the scammers, only their time is wasted.

Well, maybe my ethics are a bit rough, but I tend to get angry when innocent people are harassed.

whatsthebloodypoint.com

Chapter V: Echelon

Wondering what Echelon is? It´s a system which intercepts and process international communications passing via communications satellites, it extracts information and intelligence illicitly from millions of messages every day. It´s used by NSA. Echelon is a part of a global surveillance system which is quite old, over 50 years. Still, it is seen useful and some countries have recently built Echelon-like stations.

The UKUSA Agreement is about breaking codes of signals, it was established in 1947 and it brought together the British and American systems, and later on Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Also Norway, Denmark, Germany and Turkey joined the UKUSA network. This network is engineered under the same principles as Internet and it can be accessed from NSA´s system, Platform. The funny names continue, as some parts of the system are called Embroidery, Tideway, Oceanfront, Newsdealer, Gigster and Preppy and Droopy. You can draw your own conclusions from those.

What is interesting is that the first global WAN (wide area network) wasn´t the Internet, it was the international network connecting sigint (signals intelligence system) stations and processing centers. Funnily, it looks and feels like using Internet, standard browsers can be used to look at the output of NSA´s Operations Department, of course only with appropriate permissions. This so called Interlink connects 13 US intelligence agencies and some allied agencies and it is run from Fort Meade HQ. The aim is to provide instant access to all types of intelligence information.

The information Echelon and other parts of the global surveillance system provides is used by the US and its allies. Commonly the information is used for diplomatic, military and commercial purposes. Even it is denied, commercial and economic intelligence is a major target. The goal is to recognize topics of phone calls, since word spotting is not so effective. This feature is about to come. Also ever more extensive use of encryption by direct interference is hoped to overcome.

It is important to realize that your emails really are open to the eyes of intruders. Systems like Echelon are needed until encryption and secret codes become much more effective and ubiquitous - and most likely also after that..

Influence to global community? Well, at least it is a surveillance system, so beware of what you write ;)

Duncan Campbell: Inside Echelon

Chapter IV: Testing Net Nanny

I chose Net Nanny for quite obvious reason: I have a little girl. I thought it would be nice to know something about this very popular blocking software. Net Nanny is a so called child lock, it´s simple and rough - it blocks everything coming from certain address automatically. Works great on private PC´s but maybe too much to public machines. It is said that the major problem is that Internet changes much quicker than vendors cope to follow. And of course there is the threat of vendor´s hidden agenda.

Installing Net Nanny was simple. There were some dialog boxes which might confuse a user who isn´t that used to installing but nothing severe.

When I started web browsing for the first time after the installation it took a year for Firefox to start.. Well, it might have been also something to do with one of Firefox´s updates.

Feminism wasn´t bad on Net Nanny´s opinion. I got to browse without getting blocked. Also disabilities weren´t blocked. I also tried for example "Jehova´s Witnesses", "Republican" - no blocking

But porn was of course totally blocked. When I wrote "porn" to Google, I got a message saying "You are being blocked for viewing: www.google.fi/search For content of the following type(s): Pornography. For overriding it you need a password. But the override actually made just a blank page. Clicking the back-button gave me a page which said that there are no results for the word "porn". The reason was told below Google´s search bar: Word "porn" is filtered because you are using Google SafeSearch. Quite impressive I think. (NB: I use Finnish setup, so I transferred that last sentence - that´s why you might get a totally different one).

Also when I searched for "violence" I got the same kind of dialog as with "porn".

I would use this Net Nanny for sure, it seems to be effective. I might even need to use it after a couple of years when Karoliina grows ;) Or not. I´m not sure if there really is a need for blocking things, it´s one thing what has to be thought - maybe it´s enough to create a trusting environment to our home? It remains to be seen.

Heh, I had to uninstall Net Nanny soon after testing it - it blocked Facebook! :D And the reason it was blocked? "For the content of the following type(s): Gambling"

So, bye bye Net Nanny!

Chapter III: There is Always Room for a Good Product

At first I have to say that economics is not my strongest areas.. Quite often I have to struggle to stay awake while reading about it.. A non-market production? And in my field of activities..

Well, just to give you some mind-flow: Internet actually is a place where nonmarket productions can live. If you think you create something by yourself, meaning not that much people is needed to do the work, the costs of the product are not that huge. The first but is of course how to make your product visible. If you just put it so some server (there are some even free or almost free places) and don´t do anything to make it found, then you can say that you have just wasted your time.

Nowadays communities and networking with people and communities is "the thing", meaning blogs, wikis, galleries, Facebook, SecondLife and so on. So, your marketing plan contains a nice list of different places where to make your own profile and put your product in (or a link to it). Then you just have to be active, active and active. Make your friends, relatives and aquaintances test your product and write reviews about it until they beg you to stop. Spread the word. If your product is good and you have managed to find the right target group then the rest is history. Your product will spread through Internet like a wildfire.

Just are you good enough to create a new IRC-Gallery, MySpace or Wikipedia?

I think there is always a order for an innovative, smart and simple-to-use tool. For example to work collectively (enhance wikis) or study online (enhance for example Moodle). Or why not to just bring yourself up and known (enhance blogs).

Chapter II: Examples and Analysis

Robert Theobald: "Mind-Quake"

A Mind-Quake is a concept which means a certain point in the process of change where the old model and old understanding lose their meaning and a new one must be obtained or constructed. It means the skill to cut and divide the major quakes into smaller ones which are easier to handle.

At first when you think of Theobald´s theory you might think of the different theories of education. Well, behaviorism isn´t all gone, but when combining it to constructivism the idea is totally different. Learning just isn´t a stimulus-reaction, there is always some relation to old information. And in constructivism you actually puzzle up your knowledge.

But where this theory of Theobald works more precise.. If you think of the large scale, some basics has changed in the society as a whole. Today´s world is fully colored with one word: hurry. And everything has to be efficient. It hasn´t always been like this. Just ask your parents. Also in olden times you always got service, today the trend is more to self-service. This means a total change in thinking. For example when you check-in to a flight: you have to use a machine alone, no more smiling receptionist taking your papers (OK this is optional still, which must be a relief to older people).

And this change of society works even in childcare: some things which were seen as good things a few decades ago are nowadays seen almost dangerous. This is easily seen when you ask your mom or grandmother to watch your child a few hours.. The collision is guaranteed..

And even when thinking of the ways of correspondence, there has been a long road from homing pigeons to emails, SMS and instant messages like Messenger. The model has changed quite hugely in every step. The latest change has recently become common and usual -but there are still some people who don´t want (or can or like) to use emails or SMS (for example my mother). But what a thrill it is to receive a letter or a postcard nowadays! When I was basic school it was quite common to have many pen pals, I wonder does the children of today have any? And when have you received a letter last time? I think I got one about a year ago.. And before that I can´t even remember. It´s a shame in a way that this is so rare, maybe letters and postcards come back in fashion some day.

Charles Handy: The Paradox of Time

The application of modem technology means less time is needed to make and do things. People should have more spare time. But time has become a competitive weapon and getting things done quickly is imperative. As a result, many of those who work have less time that ever before.

Well, I think quite many people can see this happening. It is so easy to get a certain picture or phrase or what ever from the other side of the world. You can quickly collect for example logos of the company´s in IT-business, create a birthday-card or send greetings to your aunt. Without going to a store and buying a magazine and cutting the logos from it, without buying and writing your card and handing it to the receiver or without the effort of writing with a pencil and then taking it to a post. Where goes all this spare time since you don´t have to leave your home? You do another task since it is done so quickly. You send greetings to ten people instead of one. It is so quick and easy.

This applies perfectly in technical support in companies. Well at least to the one in our company. Without modems their work was more related to client´s phone calls and doing some logs of what was done. With modem technology they can take remote control the client´s computer and solve almost any kind of problem without leaving their desk. Sounds like the job is done about ten times faster than before? Probably yes. There must be a lot of spare time? Noup. And this goes closely to the paradox of productivity. Since one client is helped so quickly there is no need to have so many support personnel. And even if there were the same amount of workers than before, seems like the client´s contact more easily and also with just minor problems and instantly, without even trying themselves before.

So, all the time is always spent. Spare time? People tend to think that the certain amount of time is needed to use in precise tasks, it feels weird to have more time to do nothing than before.

Manuel Castells: Changes in Work and Employment

Emergence of flexi-workers (working without fixed time, place, or regulations); new methods allow more flexible approaches, but also produce more stress and discontent; the share of temporary and telework increases.

In my latest workplace there has never been precise times when to go to work and in certain frame you can choose how long you work in each day, just the hours per month have to be enough. We have a slide in the morning, from 7-10am when it´s recommended to show up. Usually most of people manage to apply this but it´s not rare that some people show up around eleven. I think this is quite common in Finland, especially in IT-sector.

The direction really has been away from office working towards flexibility; this kind of flexibility belongs to this time of ours, everything is more or less in electronic form, so no time is needed to "move the papers around".

My employer has offered me the possibility to work from home some days a week when I return from my maternity leave. I can manage and tutor some web courses. How great is that! Really flexible, all thanks to Internet connection. The stress this creates is how to really find and maintain a reasonable schedule. To really do the reasonable amount of hours a day, not to do all the week´s work at once.. To know when to stop, how much to do to get the work done needed in that precise week or month. And of course it feels more important to prove my employer what I do. That they can rely on me, I do what is wanted. (And a bit more.. Since I´m a perfectionist..)

Discontent? Maybe those who don´t have this opportunity of flexibility feel left out, when thinking of a work community. But when thinking of a worker, the discontent comes from the temporary and short periods of employment. The amount of temporary workers has been increasing a long time, I don´t think it´s straight related to flexi-work.

Chapter I: Challenges to the Global Information Society

Some basic of the situation of information society, according to Himanen´s article, is that the new technology isn´t the issue, it is a new way of doing things. Also the development of the technology won´t help if it isn´t combined to the changes in structure. These deep structures are the ones which need the change.

The article of Himanen comes to a conclusion that development of the deep-set structures of society is the most critical aspect to the development of information society - these structures need our attention. In the article it is pointed out that information society is not same as an information network or Internet program.

Himanen presents ten major trends which are already in progress. First one has to do with increasing international tax competition, which means that countries reduce tax rates in order to compete for investments and skilled labor. The second trend is about the new global division of labour, meaning that cheaper countries like China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia and Brazil get the routine production. The more developed countries need to specialize to more creative work. Third trend is the aging of the population which is happening especially in Europe. Fourth trend is about increasing pressures on the welfare society, the first three trends cause this to happen. Fifth is second phase of the information society which means that the technical development (which started the first phase) continues focusing to social matters.

The sixth trend is the rise of cultural industries, meaning how information economy expands to the field of culture. Seventh trend is the rise of bio-industries. The eighth is about regional concentration which means how expertise concentrates to certain regions. Ninth trend is the deepening global divide which means the rise of inequality and marginalization. The tenth and last trend is the spread of a “culture of emergency”. It is about the acceleration of development which increases the volatility of economies.

Himanen also presents some development scenarios. From a geographical perspective USA, Europe and Asia are leading, USA has kind of a upper hand for example since one third of the world’s economy is in there. Still thinking geographically, there are also three different models: The Silicon Valley model, The Singapore model and The Finnish model. The first model refers to the neoliberalist scenario of “leaving the weak behind”, the second is based on tax competition, i.e. “a race to the bottom” and the third one is the current European combination of the information society and the welfare state. Due to the article, it really is possible to combine the welfare state and the information society, it just needs courage to revise this last mentioned model. There is a need to change from a reactive to a proactive policy, react beforehand and lead the way.

In the article there are also listed some values which are underlying the original European welfare state and innovative entrepreneurship. The values are caring, confidence, communality, encouragement, freedom, creativity, courage, visionariness, balance and meaningfulness. These are the values which make life worth living so they are important to any society.

But to meet the global competition with the scenario and values, it is important to notice also these concepts: A creative economy, a creative welfare society, humanly meaningful development and a global culture.

So, what is about creative economy? It is important to rely on creativity (and expertise) under these pressures of international tax competition and the new global division of labor. Creativity is the key when aims are in increasing the added value and to improve the efficiency of production. A creative welfare society on the other hand is about the goal of people having equal opportunities to realize their potential and are protected against the random misfortunes of life.

Humanly meaningful development has the core in the human sustainability, all the time rapidly crowing global development really is an important question in the information society. The global culture is about the fact that in global development the progress should be towards joint development that is sustainable on a world scale. Open mindedness is a key to that.

Pekka Himanen: CHALLENGES OF THE GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY